


Far Future

by loveluckylost



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Corrupted Gems, Corruption, Exoplanets, Found Family, Gem Connie, Magic, Pink Lars, Space Adventure, Stranded, Survival, blood but not excessive or detailed, distant star system, future timeline, hybrid Connie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28114107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveluckylost/pseuds/loveluckylost
Summary: Era Four would be a stark contrast to the Golden Age that preceded it.Cut off from each other in the same isolated star system, two groups of survivors struggle to deal with what that means.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Peridot, Lars Barriga & Off Colors
Comments: 12
Kudos: 21





	1. Prologue: Ideal World.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to AO3 users EchoFour and NewLense for beta reading this!

# 1\. Prologue: Ideal World.

“She is a wildflower  
She blooms  
In tough weather, in tough times”  
-Saru Singhal

~*~

To say that things hadn’t gone to plan was a serious understatement.

The cell - too small for furniture, yet still somehow cramped - forced her to sit. True, there wasn’t any need to be standing, Connie supposed to herself dejectedly. But she wasn’t done trying.

Not for the first time, she studied the _thing_ that held her wrists together. It was the reason she felt much weaker than she otherwise would have liked. Somewhat akin to handcuffs, they were made of a substance unfamiliar to her - smooth, similar to metal, and yet also reminiscent of plastic in the way the light reflected off them.

It arced on occasion with blue light, a color similar to that of her gemstone. The device had been draining her own gem’s power away from her, that much was obvious, and she was awash with feelings she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Things like tiredness, pain, hunger - she still felt them even when she was at her best, of course, but never to this degree.

Despite the energy transfer taking place, the thing felt perpetually cool against her skin, and there was dried blood on her forearm from a prior attempt at removal. Looking back, slamming her wrists into the solid wall possibly wasn’t ideal in her compromised state, but her options were limited and desperation ruled.

Wherever this ship was taking her, it couldn’t be anywhere good.

Pursing her lips, she shoved all thought of uncertain imaginary futures from her mind. It was time to try again. Twisting around to give herself better access to where she’d been striking the wall, she raised her bound hands. After a deep breath to steel herself, she gritted her teeth.

Right as she was about to bring the handcuffs once again crashing down into the metal, she hesitated.

The cell was soundproof, as she’d figured out some time earlier when she noticed a guard saunter past through the viewport on the door opposite her. She’d heard no footsteps, nothing. He didn’t even seem to notice her shouting. But then, as now, she’d noticed a vibration through the floor - a low thunk.

Last time, she’d noticed it had preceded the passing of the guard by roughly half a minute or so. Perhaps that would also be the case here.

She gasped to herself, half in fear, half in a kind of nervous excitement. An opportunity lay here somewhere. She just had to figure it out-

The feral outlines of a vague plan flashed through her tired mind and without a second thought, she bit down hard into her lip. She screwed her eyes shut tight as the pain rocked its way through her nervous system before dog-piling her brain.

Blood spilled out. With bound and clumsy hands, she spread it over as much of her face as she could before dropping back to slump against the wall opposite the door. She let herself go limp as crucial seconds ticked by, and through one half-closed eye she soon noticed the viewport to the cell darken in shadow.

The visitor glanced in. She saw - but couldn’t hear - his annoyed groan. One beeping noise later, the door slid open.

Connie could see him through the sliver of the eye she’d kept half-open - fixed on a point on the wall, but she could still make him out well enough in the periphery of her vision. A taller man, not particularly muscled from what she could see, but still much bigger than she.

He wore the kind of uniform she’d been seeing more and more through footage of the war over the last few dozen years - a utilitarian blue-grey number, stiff and unflattering to the form. But most importantly, the man didn’t appear armed in any meaningful way. He instead carried a tray.

Instantly she could smell it, alongside the metallic scent of her own blood. _Food._ Or a reasonable facsimile. Realistically, it was sure to be disgusting prison food, but food nonetheless. Her hunger pangs surged.

There was no furniture in this cramped room, so as the man lowered himself to place the tray down on the floor (before he could check her pulse or administer CPR, she guessed), she flew into action.

She kicked the tray out of his hands, sending the food (some kind of chunky broth) splattering messily into the walls, the bowl smashing to the floor. He yelped in surprise. She grit her teeth.

A second kick landed in his jaw. His irises rolled up into his closing lids, and he went out like a snuffed flame. She lurched herself forward as he fell back.

Ignoring the pain from her swelling lip, she frowned in consternation as she staggered upright only to stoop to search the guard’s limp form. He was okay, as evidenced by the continued rise and fall of his chest.

Searching him - a difficult task with bound wrists - soon resulted in Connie retrieving an unfamiliar device attached by cable to his belt. There was a button on it - she guessed it to have been the thing that opened the door - and pressed it. The cuffs on her wrists made a clicking sound, and broke apart to clatter onto the floor.

She smiled to herself, her teeth crimson, as she felt it - the bottom-heavy diamond-shaped stone embedded in her chest began to glow. Its energy once again radiated out into the rest of her, filling her, returning to her.

Her body promptly set about healing the scrapes and cuts she’d managed to accumulate in the time since she’d been captured. She was grateful to feel the swelling in her lip begin to recede.

While this was happening, there was one basic physiological issue she knew her gem powers couldn’t entirely ease, but the solution to that was also here with her in the cell. With both hands and a healthy dose of reluctance, she scooped up some of the gloop dripping down the wall nearest her. She baulked a little as she brought it closer to her face but slurped it anyway.

 _”Fuck,”_ she groaned after swallowing, and fought to keep it down. It was just as disgusting as she guessed it to be. But when her stomach settled, she downed another scoop. Foul as it was, it was sustenance. It would do.

Her erstwhile captor was beginning to come around, but she wasn’t overly worried. She set about yanking his jacket off him as he attempted to cast about, bleary and confused, from where he lay.

“Hhh, what- where am I?” he asked, woozy. His eyes came to rest on her in confusion. “Mom?”

“Yeah, it’s me, _mom,”_ said Connie, rolling her eyes to herself. She spat into a sleeve and rubbed dried blood from her face as she continued. “You hit your head. How do you feel?”

He grunted and screwed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he appeared to see her clearly as she donned his uniform. “You’re not mom-“ He gasped. “The hybrid!”

She snorted at this. “Yeah, and I’m escaping. Glad you’re okay, by the way-”

His hands went for the belt at his waist, but by now she was wearing it. There was something that could have been a weapon tucked into a sheath attached to it, but she was unfamiliar with the technology these people had at their disposal. Besides, she didn’t have time for any of that. She summoned her sword from her gemstone and pointed it at the bridge of his nose.

“-Because I need you to answer some questions I have,” she finished.

From the way he pursed his lips together and narrowed his eyes, Connie anticipated him being somewhat less-than-helpful. But she pressed on anyway.

“First up, I know we’re on a ship. So. Where are we going?”

He was silent. But that was okay, she had another question.

“Why imprison me? Why not kill me?”

The man appeared to have an answer he wanted to share for this one. Smiling, he broke his short silence. “You might not realize it, hybrid, but you have a place in the Oligarchy. A place of compliance.” He spat each word.

“Nope.” Connie found herself unable to keep from wincing. “Hate that.”

“It’s true - you and your _friend_ both. And you’ll understand that, after your reprogramming.”

The glee in his eyes disturbed her almost as much as what he was saying. She swallowed the urge to waste him then and there, instead choosing to push on with her short list of questions.

“Now, you mentioned my friend,” she said in even tones. “The gem. She’s here somewhere too, isn’t she?”

He fell silent again, glaring up at her. She could tell he was sizing her up, trying to figure out if he could take her on. She was confident that he had no chance, but that didn’t change the fact that time was pressing. She had no way of telling how long she’d been sitting in that cell for. No way of knowing where she was.

She could have been halfway across the galaxy by now - which was yet another thought to push from her mind. She chose only to focus on what she could control.

Unfortunately, the only thing she could control right now was herself and what she did with her sword. But she was working hard at gaining any other advantage.

“Tell me where she is!” But it was no use - the demand was met with further silence. She grit her teeth, her mind racing. “Are you going to be helpful, or-”

“Not to you, _hybrid,”_ he sneered. “You think you’re escaping? Hah! You’re trapped on this ship! I’ll get everyone down here-”

Well, at least now she knew what to do with him. She snapped her fingers and a blue-ish bubble formed around his head. He cursed at her, but it was nearly inaudible. She smiled as he tried to pull the thing off his head.

“You’ll be fine,” Connie reassured him with a smile as she stepped out of the cell. “Your friends will figure out how to get that off you later.”

She swiped the little key-like device across a sensor next to the door. It slid shut in time for the guy to crash against it, all fists, railing in silence against the door she intimately knew by now to be impervious to normal human strength.

But she put him out of her mind as the sword dematerialised in her hand. The corridor she stood in now was long and lined with similar cell doors. She picked a direction and jogged off in it, peering in through the viewport into each cell as she went.

She appeared to have been the only prisoner aboard this ship, until at last she came across a cell that wasn’t bare. Skidding to a halt, she backtracked and stared briefly through the viewport before using the key on the door.

Stepping inside, her footsteps bouncing off the sterile walls, she was able to get a closer look. Able now to see that the object was semi-transparent, the thing it held inside it made her heart thump in her chest when she saw it.

Before she knew what she was doing, she’d once again summoned her sword and smashed the synthetic bubble.

The gem inside caught itself before it hit the ground and levitated higher into the air. Connie caught her breath as she watched the bright marionette of her friend spill out of it. One by one, it cycled through her forms-

And Peridot soon touched down in front of her. She opened her eyes.

“Wh-“

Before the diminutive gem could even get a full word out, she found herself swept up into a hug. “Hrrk.”

A cry of relief ripped from Connie’s chest. “Peridot! Thank the stars. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Peridot blinked hard. “Connie?” She pulled back, and couldn’t help but look her up and down. A smirk took her features. “Hah! What are you _wearing?_ ”

Next, her eyes moved past her and for the first time she appeared to notice the sterile cell they stood in. The smirk fell from her face. “Where are we?”

“We appear to be in a brig, but we’re escaping. C’mon.” She took Peridot by the hand and led her out of the cell.

“B-but, wait. We were attacked by-“

“An Oligarchy ship? Yeah. As far as I can tell, that’s where we are.”

Peridot’s eyes went wide as she followed Connie down the corridor, toward a sealed doorway.

“And you didn’t think to get _me_ a uniform?!”

“You’re _tiny_ and you’re _green!”_ Connie hissed as she peered through the viewport. From her limited field of vision, the corridor beyond seemed empty. “There’s no way you’ll pass as a human!”

“Oh, stars.” Peridot clutched her head. “This is bad. Bad bad bad-“

 _”Peridot,_ just stay behind me. We’ll find a way off this ship, alright?”

Peridot watched with growing nervousness as Connie bapped a panel with the key, and the door slid open.

Connie stepped into a much duller corridor, and Peridot followed. This one had far fewer doorways along the sides and, unlike the silence of the prison section, it was permeated by a vague thronging of indistinct noise. They thought they could almost hear voices in the midst of it all, though they couldn’t spy the source of it.

They moved slowly, carefully, down the corridor until they came upon an intersection. Connie peered around the corner.

There in the darkness, something sat hovering in midair. It was a tube of the same odd metal her handcuffs and the rest of this place seemed made of, and it whirred to life immediately.

A lens like an eye rolled around until it landed on her. It focused on her face-

“Shit,” she grunted, materializing her weapon once again. The drone flew at her, but she smashed it with a single swing of her sword.

This was when Peridot threw herself into her side. Connie stumbled and they landed in a heap among the debris. Finding herself with Peridot’s hand over her mouth, she glanced up to find the gem looking incredibly worried - her green eyes boring into her own blue ones.

Then she heard them. Footsteps. More than one set.

As silently as they could manage, they scooted through the debris and pressed themselves against the wall. They hoped it would be enough and that the ship’s staff would pass them by unnoticed.

As the footsteps came closer, they began to make out words. Connie held her breath as tight as her sword, desperate to learn everything she could.

“-Came up on the scanner,” a female voice was saying as they hurried closer. “It’s infested with gems.”

“Second Authority?” asked a deeper voice.

“Probably.” Her tone dropped. “It’s listed as a human-controlled independent planet, is the thing. It’s disgusting.”

“So,” the male voice seemed confused. “Why blast the planet, then? Won’t that make the problem worse?”

Her voice became disparaging. “You haven’t been here long, have you? Think of it as a... test for them. If they can deal with corrupteds for a few years. By the time we swoop back in to liberate them, they’ll be a grateful and valuable addition to our empire.”

Connie and Peridot exchanged silent glances.

 _“Oh,”_ said the male, after a pause.

“And if they _can’t,_ well, we clean up the corrupted and claim the ground anyway.” Her voice became brighter, here. “It’s not that complicated. Now, hurry up! I want to see it when it happens!”

They indeed looked to be in a rush, hurrying past without noticing the eavesdroppers. As their footsteps receded away to blend in with the rest of the ship’s hubbub, Peridot untangled herself from Connie.

“The rumors are true,” the gem croaked, voice thick with dismay. “The Oligarchy really reverse-engineered _corruption itself.”_ She grabbed Connie’s hand and implored her with hollow eyes. “We have to get out of here.” Then, brightening as she thought of something, she added, “We’ll hijack an escape pod! I’m certain I can hack their communications and pick up a friendly signal-“

But a terse reply cut her off. “No.”

“Wh-“ Peridot closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose briefly. “We can find our people!”

 _“No,”_ said Connie again as she herself stood. “There’s not enough time. We have to stop this.”

Peridot rolled her eyes. “Connie, this isn’t the time for thrilling heroics. This ship is _Oligarchy_ \- I’m a gem and you’re a hybrid. They don’t play well with us! Besides,” -here, she pulled a face- “If we win, our prize is that we get stuck in this sector with Second Authority.”

Connie frowned, grasping at straws now. “Well... We’ll blend in until we can escape from them, too.”

Peridot frowned hard and massaged her temple. “Connie-”

“Peridot!” Connie snapped, losing patience now. “These people aren’t as dangerous as you think! We made it this far. If we can get to the control room, we at least have a chance of helping. Besides, what if the gems down there aren’t Second? What if they’re on our side? Either way, they’re probably oblivious to all this. And they’re definitely not going to be able to help us if they’re corrupted!”

“I-“

Connie dropped her voice. “It’s... not like there’s a cure right now.”

Peridot’s reply caught at her lips.

The severity of the situation was palpable. Inescapable. It sat thick in the air around them. And although Peridot’s mind raced, it became more and more clear that there were very few alternate options.

She folded her arms across her chest, deep furrows streaking her brow around her gem. “Fffffour letter word. Alright, fine. As insane as this all is, what else are we gonna do? _Nothing?_ ” She spread her arms wide. “Are we just gonna get stranded in a short-range escape pod in a corrupted system, having failed an unknown quantity of gems, with no one to help us?”

“Yeah,” muttered Connie as she scratched at her scalp through hair as messy as the situation.

Peridot sighed, followed shortly by a smile up at her old friend. She waved an arm around to weaponize the debris from the smashed drone - they rose up into the air in a pincer formation around the pair.

“So, you and I blindly launch an assault on the control room, take out their weapons - _then_ we’ll hop an escape pod.” She eyed her taller friend carefully. “And all this happens _before_ they shatter us, correct?”

Connie fought against doubt to return the smile as confidently as she could. “Ideal world? Yes.”

Peridot gave a short humorless chuckle. “This _ideal world_ of yours sounds like quite a place.”

“Doesn’t it, though?”

Together, flanked by the hovering chunks of jagged debris, they turned the corner and sped off in the direction of either salvation or doom. The coin of their lives spun at the apex of its flight - only time would tell the way it would land.

For now, lines of tension streaked Connie’s face. “We should all go there sometime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to EchoFour for encouraging me to write a hybrid Connie and helping me with her.
> 
> ==
> 
> Hello! Yes, new story! This is a 4-chapter prologue to set up the universe that the rest of this series will explore. My plan is to write this for as long as I have ideas for it. Hopefully this won’t take such a swift nosedive into powerlessness and existential angst like my last big fic did, but... I promise no heartbreaking time travel in this one, at least dkfjghk
> 
> Seriously though, I enjoyed a lot of the themes of Counting Down so much I basically wanted to keep doing it, but slightly to the left, and with other people around. I’m pleased to report I’m now obsessed with corruption as well, so... cool space adventure with a bunch of my favorite side characters. Woop!
> 
> Update schedule? Let’s try fortnightly for now and see how that goes. 
> 
> I have a decent buffer right now for this which I’m hoping will increase, and a couple of other SU fanfic projects I’m also working on that I hope to start sharing sometime soon too. However, work’s been pretty busy since my country came out of quarantine a few months back and I’ve been working a lot on my physical health recently - even though my writing’s been pretty slow, it’s still up there as a priority.
> 
> The art is by me unless otherwise stated.
> 
> [loveluckylost on Tumblr]


	2. Prologue: Still Time.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Off Colors experience a bit of a problem.

# 2\. Prologue: Still Time.

“It will feel like dying...  
but this will just be your rebirth.”  
-Adrianna C. Nava S.

~*~

The daystar hung high in the sky - a cloudless purple with a scattering of stars, but the region was cast nonetheless in dull light. In fact, the whole world seemed always in shadow, like an early evening on Earth.

Through that light, through a vast rolling plain, ran Rhodonite, crushing the occasional wild mushroom underfoot as she went.

The fusion’s teeth were tightly grit, all four of her arms swinging wildly as she sprinted - her top set of eyes always pointed in the direction they were running while her bottom set, glancing as far back as they could, tried to stay alert for surprise attacks.

“Oh my stars, oh my stars, oh _asteroids._ Oh my stars-”

She gasped as both sets of eyes fixated on what was ahead - a wide gorge, a deep tear in the surface of the world.

The corners of her mouth lifted up in a short-lived smile before she glanced back again to remind herself of the danger behind her.

Five towering citrines hurtled after her across this fungal plain.

Each of them brimmed with weapons that glittered even in the dim light. On their chests they bore the sign of the Second Authority, pale, bright emblems emblazoned against the orange and gold of their forms.

Rhodonite turned all her eyes back to the front.

She slid to a stop mere yards away from the cliff’s edge, sending dust and little fungal spores out into the air where they seemed to hang for a moment before dispersing.

She quashed the urge to jump, forced it all the way down. The gems that comprised her, so protective of each other, fought to convince her. And indeed it was true - whatever lay down there was better than what stalked her up here. Pearl and Ruby knew it-

But Rhodonite had a plan, terrifying as it was.

She didn’t need to breathe or swallow, but her time among humans caused her to do both - each action was a good method of steeling frayed nerves, even for gems. Then, spinning around, she saw the citrines also slow.

The corners of their mouths turned upward as if each one of them smelled victory. This hapless, loved-up fusion they’d been in pursuit of through the wastes for these last hundred miles would soon be one less threat to the Second Authority’s presence on this planet - lush with resources and, at the same time, teeming with foes.

She was surrounded, each direction that wasn’t a deep drop down covered by glittering quartz soldiers advancing upon her.

“Give up already, fusion,” said one of the citrines as she stepped to the front, sword tip pointed straight at her. “You can’t outrun the Second Authority.”

“The cool thing about me,” started Rhodonite, making an effort to keep a tremor from her voice, “Is that I don’t have to.”

The citrine who had spoken laughed, and the others joined her. “You’re talking like you have a backup plan!” She turned to her friends. “Can you believe this ridiculous fusion?”

When the others replied in the negative, Rhodonite’s fear settled long enough for a little outrage to whip up. “Excuse me,” she told them. “I never leave the ship without a backup plan. I choose to _weaponize_ my anxiety. Whoever informed you otherwise is a liar.”

This elicited another chuckle from the wall of orange blocking her. Rhodonite bit her lip as the one who appeared to be in charge pointed at her.

“What’s this plan, then?” the citrine demanded. “Between you, me, and this planet’s dim star, I think you’re bluffing.”

“That’s okay,” Rhodonite said. She held up a hand, and a ball of flaming plasma burst brightly to life in her palm.

The citrines were unimpressed with the display and looked back to her face, their expressions ranging from amusement to annoyance. But they didn’t have to be particularly impressed, because it was a signal.

“You can keep thinking that. I don’t mind.”

Before they could react to this odd statement, a patch of space wrenched itself open behind them. Out from it poured not only light, but two figures brandishing weapons.

It was Rhodonite’s turn to smile as one of the rear citrines grunted and, an instant later, burst into a billowing haze. The other citrines spun only to be dumbfounded - a twinned gem and what appeared to be one of the pinked had appeared from nowhere. The former carried a sword in one hand, a shield in the other. The latter wielded a spear.

Lars spun the spear tip into the face of the closest recoiling citrine and, pulling one hand away from the shaft for a moment, flicked a casual greeting to Rhodonite. “‘Yo, Rho. Nice day for a run?”

“Better, now,” Rhodonite replied with a strained grin as she hurled the ball of plasma.

The citrines began to scatter, but the one she’d singled out to take aim at brought her sword down hard, sending the attack careening off into the chasm.

“What are you doing?!” the citrine shouted at her cohorts, desperation in her voice. “Come back! Fight them!”

As that last word left her mouth, her form disappeared thanks to a thrust of the Rutile Twin’s blade. Her orange gemstone dropped down to land in the dirt alongside that of her friend.

The remaining citrine’s courage had fled, and so had they. This lonely, helpless fusion was much less lonely and helpless than she had appeared moments earlier, and that sent them into disarray.

“What! Is that all you got!?” one of the Rutile Twins yelled after them. “We thought you wanted someone to pick on!” added the other.

Lars placed his hand on their shoulder as they watched the enemy recede into the distance. “It’s okay. There’s no warp pad for miles. We’ll portal on top of them soon and kick their asses.”

“I’m ready when the group is,” said one twin. “Me too,” said the other.

Lars turned back to fix on Rhodonite. “You took forever with the signal! Are you okay?”

Rhodonite blinked both sets of eyes at once. “Oh! Yes!” She laughed a little, awkwardly. “The things they were saying... brought out the ruby in me. You know how it is.”

The fusion stuck her fingers in her mouth and gave a loud, sharp whistle that cut through the quiet afternoon. The three of them turned to face the edge of the cliff as the enormous head of Fluorite slowly rose its way up over it, followed by the rest of her. Accompanying her was Padparadscha, perched safely in the palm of one of her four hands.

“I’m predicting the citrines will soon flee,” Padparadscha said in a cheerful tone once Fluorite had all six feet back on horizontal ground again. “A pity, really. I was ready to be useful as backup.”

Fluorite tsked as the little gem stepped down from her palm. “Padparadscha. You used to be such a darling. What’s become of you?”

The little gem grinned enigmatically as Rhodonite stooped to pick up the two gemstones.

“Well, the war _is_ wearing on,” Rhodonite chimed in. “Every year the Second Authority is on Iota IV is another year our human allies lose to this conflict.”

Despite her disdain for these gems, she carefully turned them over in her lower set of hands, inspecting them for scratches or marks. Aside from grit they appeared to be undamaged. 

With a flourish, a pink-ish bubble sprang up around them, and as it hung there in the air, Rhodonite shrugged and continued her thought. “What with their tendency to age and all that.”

Lars’ breath caught in his throat for a second before he exhaled the rest of the way. “So,” he piped back up, trying to sound chipper as he threw a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the gems fleeing into the distance, kicking up clouds of dust as they went. “We gonna finish this job before those guys call for backup, or what?”

The Rutile Twins had been watching the citrines in the distance, and at this, they spun around to strike a power pose with sword and shield for the benefit of their friends. 

“Yeah! We’re ready!” one twin said. “Rip reality a new space-hole, Lars!” enthused the other.

“Do it!” intoned Fluorite.

Padparadsha clasped her hands together as Rhodonite smiled and began to dispatch the bubble. Spinning the spear around above his head, Lars prepared to drive it into the ground, intending to produce a portal from the resulting vibrations-

And a gasp from the twins cut everything short.

“That’s new, right?” They were reeling back, looking up past their friends, into the sky. “I’m pretty sure that’s new.”

Lars halted his flourish with the spear and joined the others in twisting around to see a light up there in the purple sky, much bigger than the usual stars visible in the dull daylight.

Rhodonite cocked her head at it. “Huh. A ship?”

“I don’t think so,” said Fluorite, narrowing her eyes.

“There aren’t any ‘nova warnings in the area, are there?” Lars asked quickly.

“Last I checked, the space weather is supposed to be fine for the next eighteen thousand years,” the fusion replied with a shake of her head.

Lars frowned, trying to make sense of this. “Okay. So-“

Padparadscha’s hollow voice cut through the speculation. “My friends. I’m having a baleful vision.”

Everyone present turned to stare at the diminutive orange gem. She held her hands clasped in front of her, grim, as she explained. “I. I’m sorry to say... a ship in deep orbit will soon fire upon Iota IV.”

Rhodonite piped up. “Wha-“ But she was cut off by Padparadscha raising a hand.

“A corruption wave,” the sapphire clarified.

Rhodonite’s mouth hung open. “Oh my _actual_ stars.” She raised her hands to her head and screwed her bottom set of eyes shut. The top pair remained wide and unblinking at the sky. “What are we gonna do!?”

Lars too glanced back up at the ever-brightening light. True to form, Padpardscha’s prediction was already playing out before them. “Wasn’t that just a rumor?” he asked in a rising desperation. “I mean, that was just Labradorite bullshitting again, yeah?“

Padparadscha grit her teeth bitterly. “It will appear not.”

Fluorite gasped and cast about as chaos broke out below her. The Rutile Twins chewed on their fingertips as Rhodonite fumbled about, pulling something from her pearl - a communicator, which she struggled with trembling fingers to activate. 

“Commander Pyrope, come in! Anyone? Stars, I can’t-“ But she was shaking too much, rendering her efforts to get it to work futile.

Lars saw the immediate future play out before him. He’d met a few of the wild, disruptive corrupted back in a much different, more Earth-bound life. The thought of this family of his being reduced to the kind of misery and that would mean for them caused the stasis of the moment to melt away.

Time was precious - now more than ever. He lurched forward, waving his arms out at his friends.

“Get in my head,” he cried, worry lines creasing his brow as his brain wrestled against utter panic. Seven and a half pairs of troubled eyes landed on him as he continued. “Listen, you need to release your forms and hide in my head. I might be fine-“

“But you’re like us - what if you’re not fine?!” asked a twin, despair etched into her features. “Lars, we can’t just _leave_ you!” cried the other.

“What!?” he shrieked. “You guys _won’t_ be fine if that fucking thing hits you!“

He turned to find Padparadscha frozen in place, literally. Tiny ice crystals formed slowly at the hems of her skirts and she clasped her hands tightly, shaking, attempting to glean what little else she could from this bleak situation. Rhodonite paced nervously, all four hands fumbling with the communicator. It switched on to show Pyrope’s concerned crimson visage briefly, only to flicker out again. She cursed herself for her clumsiness.

“Guys,” he tried again, lurching toward them. “Listen!”

Fluorite, who had also been quietly watching her cohorts spiral into despair, hardened herself. She knew that there was no time for any of this.

She took action. The communicator fell from Rhodonite’s grip and thudded to the ground amid a burst of thick haze. The huge fusion shot a hand out to catch Rhodonite’s pearl and ruby as they fell. 

Lars’ jaw almost hit the dirt. With eyes wide, he could do little more than watch as Fluorite went on to slam a massive fist down on the recoiling Rutile twins, followed in turn by the shrinking Padparadscha. 

It was over in no time, and a teal bubble burst to life around the four dormant gemstones in Fluorite’s hands. Lars found himself at a complete loss. “Fuh, Fluorite-?” he stammered, but there were no other words available to him.

The fusion’s six eyes swivelled around to all land on him. In this moment, he could see doubt playing upon every one of them. Regret, perhaps, for what she had been forced to do. Fear for the immediate future as the light grew brighter in the sky above-

He got it. Profoundly. This wasn’t how either of them expected the afternoon to go.

Lars inhaled a shaky breath. There was still nothing worth enough to say, but he took a step forward. Making an effort to swallow her fear, she moved closer in turn. 

“Lars.” Earnestly holding the bubble out to him, she said, “Tell them... I’m sorry. That it was easier this way.”

He tried to choke out, “What about you-“

And was silenced by the bubble being pushed toward him. “No time for that,” came her uncharacteristically quick correction, a sure sign that her components were acting in unison. 

Lars raised his shaking hands and beckoned to the bubble. It floated, crossing the short distance between them quickly and in a flash of light it vanished into his head.

They had a chance of being safe, now. Unlike-

The sky grew ever brighter. Lars tore his eyes from it to stare up into the gentle face of his old friend. She was smiling, and his surprise at this was summarily squashed by that ever-present urgency.

“Please,” he begged Fluorite, as breathless as the still world around them. “Unfuse. There’s still time,” he croaked before being proven otherwise by the air jolting as the initial forces hit the planet. The ground shook.

Lars stumbled, and found his shoulder steadied by one of Fluorite’s hands. He knew it, then - that there wasn’t time. Fluorite’s components clung tight to each other, unable to agree on much else than what had been done, unable to loosen the bonds of her being.

Every piece of her wanted to. Every one of her components yearned to usher the others, to put her love above herself, be the last into the safety of his head. But no part of her could bear the possibility of losing another to that noble task when time was closing in so narrow.

If it was true - if part of her was going to be lost to this - then all of her would be.

But behind the barely-concealed panic in all six of her eyes, there was something of that peace he’d come to know over the many years they’d been together. The fusion had acted in the best interests of those she’d loved most, like she always had.

He couldn’t quite blink back the tears before they began rolling from him. He threw himself against her huge face, arms outstretched, desperate to cling to these final seconds with her as long as he could. 

“I’m gonna miss you,” he sobbed into her, and she hugged back with as many arms as could reach.

“Good luck,” said Fluorite with one weather eye on the crashing sky. “I love you.”

A blinding light swept over them.

As it turned out, light had a taste. 

Light had a sound. A smell. It was all-consuming, everlasting and deafening, as impossible to fight as the breaking of dawn.

This light ripped and tore at her body, at each of his senses. Minutes turned into hours turned into days-

Seconds later, as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

And it left him on his knees, alone in the dust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to AO3 users EchoFour and NewLense for beta reading this!
> 
> ==
> 
> Here we _goooooo_
> 
> I’ve been wanting to write the Off Colors again for ages but I’ve kind of fizzled out for now with the last fic I was writing that featured them, and other ideas always eluded me. I love them, but they were featured so little in the show that I know fuck-all about them so I knew I just needed to think of a cool plot and pretend like I know what I’m doing with them, lol.
> 
> I would have killed for more Off Colors in the show T_T
> 
> But anyway. Um. Fluorite is the one I have the least ideas about unfortunately. I’m sorry to bench her. I hope the way she saved everyone else’s asses is some kind of consolation. She will remain important throughout.
> 
> And a note: I changed the structure of this work. It used to be the first part of a series, but now everything’s going to be jammed here in the one work, now titled Far Future. I was a bit uncertain about how to set it up for a while, but I think this makes sense. It just means the chapter titles might be a bit of a mouthful as I still want to distinguish between story arcs (and I’m planning some single-chapter Intermissions as well) so maybe it’ll work better this way. Means you only have to subscribe to the one work, if you want to stay abreast of new updates.


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